1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to medical devices and more particularly to breathing assistance devices. Most particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus suitable for facilitating or enhancing a person's breathing.
2. Description of Relevant Art
A common problem encountered with sensory and consciousness deficient patients confined to hospital beds, operating tables, wheelchairs, and even beds at home is poor posture, or slumping and sliding of the patient into uncomfortable and even dangerous positions, in particular positions that inhibit the flow of oxygen to the patient's respiratory system.
This phenomenon may be observed in hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, emergency rooms, ambulances, and pediatric wards, among others. In particular, the inventor observed her mother, Marie J. Parish, experiencing these very issues during her final days in a critical care stroke unit and, based on her observations of her mother's suffering at that time, was driven to find a solution.
Breathing problems can occur in any situation where the patient has a respiratory disease or chronic pulmonary obstructive disease, has sleep apnea, is disabled, is sedated or comatose, has ketosis associated with diabetes, has had a stroke, is in shock, has emphysema, or any other type of medical condition where the patient is not able to keep him or herself in a proper position to enhance the flow of oxygen. It should also be noted that the quality of life of the patients in these conditions may also be severely impacted by the same problem.
Respiratory disease is a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality in the United States. Lung diseases, excluding lung cancer, constitute 8% of all hospice admissions and are the fifth most common primary illness of hospice patients. Chronic lower respiratory disease was responsible for nearly 125,000 deaths in the United States in 2006 and that death rate continues to rise, especially among elderly men.
Most of the literature on care of patients with chronic respiratory disease has been focused on chronic pulmonary obstructive disease (COPD). Relatively little study has been done on palliative and hospital/hospice care of patients with restrictive lung diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis and genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis.
It is readily observable, however, that many, if not all, hospice patients with any type of respiratory disease, are in a slumped position with poor body posture for breathing. This exacerbates the lack of airflow from the already compromised breathing of the patient.
Another common problem encountered by rescuers of unconscious, non-breathing victims, is that the victim's airway is closed. A skilled rescuer is trained to manually hyperextend the victim's neck, and/or perform an alternative maneuver called a chin lift. Such procedures are inherently difficult to perform correctly and reliably. A rolled up towel or foam may be used to facilitate the procedures, but these aids are not automatically deployable and tend to provide poor or inconsistent results with an inexperienced user. The chief alternative in the prior art has been to perform endotracheal intubation or surgical tracheotomy. Even those alternative procedures, however, can be difficult to perform on an obese patient.
A need exists for easily and dependably facilitating or enhancing the breathing of patients with respiratory disease, accident victims and others.